Artist of the week + Design | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/series/artistoftheweek+design
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Artist of the week 142: Nicole Wermershttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/jun/09/artist-week-nicole-wermers
This artist's seductive sculptures drip glamour and reflect a world in which design has consumed everything<p>Nicole Wermers' sculptures drip glamour. Her curving, seductive forms - dressed up in clean, chic white upholstery, cool black resin or glossy lacquer - recall furniture showroom decor. Reflecting a world where everything from gallery door-knobs to coffee cups is "designer", they hint at high modernism-meets-high-end product design, formalism in furniture, minimalism as a lifestyle choice.</p><p>Born in Germany but now based in London, Wermers is a prominent figure in a younger generation of artists addressing the designed world. In the past few years, her work has included conjoined copper half-moons that look like riffs on early <a href="http://www.anthonycaro.org/" title="">Anthony Caro</a>, and an outsized eyeshadow compact. Another work of hers, a long Perspex box encasing boulders, wouldn't seem out of place supporting coffee-table books in a loft apartment. Especially memorable was Wermers' twist on the smooth oval forms beloved of <a href="http://www.anishkapoor.com/" title="">Anish Kapoor</a>, in a work that resembled a giant, pearly-pink earring that hung from <a href="http://www.camdenartscentre.org/exhibitions/?id=100200" title="">Camden Art Gallery</a>'s outside wall.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/jun/09/artist-week-nicole-wermers">Continue reading...</a>SculptureArtArt and designDesignCultureThu, 09 Jun 2011 11:46:38 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/jun/09/artist-week-nicole-wermersPhotograph: PRLifesize lifestyle ... Nicole Wermer's installation at Herald Street, LondonPhotograph: PRLifesize lifestyle ... Nicole Wermer's installation at Herald Street, LondonSkye Sherwin2011-06-09T11:46:38ZArtist of the week 93: Andrea Zittelhttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/jun/24/artist-andrea-zittel
The inventor, designer, architect and life coach has spent the past two decades developing solutions to streamline our lives<p>Harassed by timetables and to-do lists? Want to streamline your life or get away from it all? <a href="http://www.zittel.org/" title="">Andrea Zittel</a> might have something for the pain. The American artist (who could also be described as an inventor, clothes and product designer, architect and life coach) has spent the past two decades developing solutions for an overcrowded, time-conscious, debilitating world. Since she set up her lifestyle solutions company-come-artistic identity, A-Z Administration in 1992, her custom-made designs have included everything from the A-Z Dishless Dining Table, doing away with washing up worries, to the A-Z Chamber Pot, relieving users of the trouble of plumbing.</p><p>Building on the artist-as-designer model established by <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/nov/17/architecture.art" title="">Bauhaus</a>, Zittel takes an individualistic approach to utopian design. Rather than rolling out utilitarian products for the masses, she's gone about revolutionising lives with a view to independence and individualism. Her efforts to improve the world always begin with herself. For instance, her A-Z Personal Uniforms from 1992, an evolving clothes range largely consisting of pinafore dresses crafted in everything from crochet to wool-felt, were originally a response to the demands of looking presentable for a gallery job in New York's East Village, after graduating from the <a href="http://www.risd.edu/" title="">Rhode Island School of Design</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/jun/24/artist-andrea-zittel">Continue reading...</a>ArtSculptureInstallationDesignExhibitionsArt and designCultureThu, 24 Jun 2010 14:12:19 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/jun/24/artist-andrea-zittelPhotograph: courtesy of the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, LondonAndrea Zittel's Ideological Resonator No 3, on show as part of Clasp exhibition at Sadie Coles gallery, London. Photograph: courtesy of the artist and Sadie Coles HQPhotograph: courtesy of the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, LondonAndrea Zittel's Ideological Resonator No 3, on show as part of Clasp exhibition at Sadie Coles gallery, London. Photograph: courtesy of the artist and Sadie Coles HQSkye Sherwin2010-06-24T14:12:19ZArtist of the week 71: Matthew Darbyshire | Skye Sherwinhttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/jan/20/artist-matthew-darbyshire
With their sly parodies of corporate branding and mass-produced design, Darbyshire's installations expose the hollow realities behind urban regeneration<p>What does New Labour's Britain look like? In the work of <a href="http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/matthew_darbyshire.htm?section_name=new_britannia" title="Matthew Darbyshire">Matthew Darbyshire</a>, the outgoing party's legacy is revealed to be a world of shifting surfaces, all daubed in a CMYK palette – cyan, magenta, yellow and black – the standard commercial colour wheel. In his installations and assemblages, this young British artist brings together fittings and fixtures culled from hospitals, libraries and schools, as well as shopping centres and loft apartments, all bubblegum pinks, swimming-pool turquoises and acid yellows. Curvaceous and soft-edged, their shapes suggest a childish world of playpens and safety first. Our society based on democratic consumer choice turns out to be a dazzling illusion, with no choice at all.</p><p>Darbyshire studied under <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/may/06/artist-week-phyllida-barlow" title="Phyllida Barlow">acclaimed sculptor Phyllida Barlow</a> at the Slade School of Art in London, alongside other rising British talents such as Spartacus Chetwynd and Pablo Bronstein. When a serious back injury forced the artist to spend a year in bed, preventing him from making sculpture, he turned his attentions to the realm of contemporary design. Blades House, his <a href="http://www.gasworks.org.uk/exhibitions/detail.php?id=332" title="installation at Londons Gasworks">installation at London's Gasworks</a> in 2008, brought his research into focus. This recreation of a revamped former council flat from a nearby block was filled with furnishings apparently catering to the average thirtysomething up-and-comer: everything from an iPod to the bubble chair, Crocs and a Takashi Murakami print. While Darbyshire's cool-headed "ideal home" display didn't condemn this kind of aspirational lifestyle, it certainly raised serious social questions. As friendly as it appeared, his take on the blinged-up ex-authority pad revealed a society that remains far from classless.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/jan/20/artist-matthew-darbyshire">Continue reading...</a>InstallationExhibitionsArtArt and designCultureDesignWed, 20 Jan 2010 17:48:34 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/jan/20/artist-matthew-darbyshirePhotograph: courtesy Herald St, London and Chris HildreyGoing logo ... A detail from a computerised rendering of Elis, Matthew Darbyshire's imaginary dystopian development. Image courtesy of Herald St, London, and Chris HildreyPhotograph: courtesy Herald St, London and Chris HildreyGoing logo ... A detail from a computerised rendering of Elis, Matthew Darbyshire's imaginary dystopian development. Image courtesy of Herald St, London, and Chris HildreySkye Sherwin2010-01-20T17:48:34Z